Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Propaganda, Spectacle, and Morality
Children
Government and Power
Human Nature
Trust and Loyalty
Summary
Analysis
Coriolanus has experience with bombs; they’re terrifying. He rolls, flattens onto his belly, and tries not to panic as bombs go off around the arena. He goes into “bomb time,” his and Tigris’s name for the surreal experience of waiting for the bombs to stop. During the war, the Capitol’s bomb surveillance system was spotty, so people usually didn’t have time to get to their shelters. Coriolanus, Tigris, and Grandma’am would hide under their marble dining table. As Coriolanus remembers this, he realizes the bombs were planted here, not dropped. He smells smoke too and sees Lucy Gray coughing. Coriolanus shouts for her to cover her face.
Again, it’s impossible to ignore how traumatized Coriolanus still is by what happened during the war. And he also reveals another way that the government failed to protect him and all Capitol citizens—the spotty bomb surveillance no doubt meant that people died deaths that otherwise would’ve been preventable. But Coriolanus still instinctively puts his wealth front and center, when he talks about hiding under a solid marble table—a clear sign of his family’s affluence. Further, though Coriolanus instantly blames the rebels for the bombs, Dr. Gaul has shown that she has little regard for Capitol kids’ lives. The novel never confirms who planted the bombs—and it’s possible that Dr. Gaul put them there to make a point and create more spectacle.
Themes
After a short break in the explosions, another bomb goes off and burning debris falls into the arena. A beam lands across Coriolanus’s back. The beam is on fire, but it’s too heavy for him to move. He yells for help as his hair starts to burn. Coriolanus notices Lucy Gray standing, moving away, but then she moves the beam and limps with Coriolanus to the middle of the arena. Once he recovers from his coughing fit, he sees that Lucy Gray’s hands are burnt. The smoke clears, revealing that the bombs had been planted all around the arena. There’s a hole in one wall, which reveals the street; Coriolanus sees two people running away.
War and violence, this passage suggests, are forces that equalize people. In the arena, amidst the bombs, Lucy Gray and Coriolanus are equally likely to be hurt—their economic or social differences won’t protect them in this situation. When Lucy Gray chooses to help Coriolanus rather than run, it shows how much she sees him as a person who deserves care, compassion, and protection. She’s sacrificing her freedom—and her hands, judging by the burns—to rescue him.
Themes
Medics run toward Coriolanus and Lucy Gray. Coriolanus assures Lucy Gray she’ll be helped as the medics lift him onto a stretcher—but instead, a Peacekeeper hits her with a rifle and forces her to her stomach. An ambulance takes Coriolanus to the hospital, where doctors annoy him all through the night. Coriolanus finally wakes up on Sunday afternoon with Tigris and Grandma’am leaning over him. He says that Lucy Gray saved his life. Tigris believes this; Grandma’am does not.
Coriolanus might be starting to see Lucy Gray as a person just like him, but powerful people in charge don’t share this view. Clearly, both Coriolanus and Lucy Gray need medical attention. But while Coriolanus gets help immediately, no questions asked, Lucy Gray is treated like a criminal responsible for the bombing instead of like the victim she is.
Themes
Tigris shares details from the last few days and Coriolanus realizes the entire Capitol is on edge. Rebels obviously set the bombs, but when? And from where? They could’ve been placed months or days before, and there’s no way to tell how the bombs were triggered. The District Six tributes died, as did Pollo and Didi Ring. Two of Coriolanus’s classmates are in the hospital in critical condition. Coriolanus asks about Lysistrata, who’d been right behind him. Grandma’am says she’s fine, but she’s obviously looking for attention: she insists her District 12 tribute protected her. Coriolanus is skeptical; Lysistrata isn’t at all like Arachne. Tigris suggests that maybe District 12 people aren’t so bad.
The bombs’ very existence challenges Panem’s belief that the Capitol is all-powerful and is in control (assuming that the rebels really are responsible for the bombs, rather than Dr. Gaul). Clearly, the rebel movement is still alive and well—and able to hit the Capitol hard. Coriolanus hasn’t felt so vulnerable like this in a long time, so this feels like a very unwelcome blast from the past for him. The Grandma’am shows how set she is in her beliefs when she insists that Jessup couldn’t have possibly protected Lysistrata. But the tributes are indeed people capable of stepping up—she’s just incapable of seeing that.
Themes
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Coriolanus asks if Lucy Gray is okay. Tigris says she’s not on the list of dead tributes: in addition to the District Six tributes, the District One tributes were shot, the female District Two tribute died in a fall, and Marcus escaped. Grandma’am suggests the tributes see the arena as a symbol, like the rebels did during the war. And unfortunately, Capitol News ended up airing 20 seconds of coverage after the bombs exploded. Though Tigris points out that most people in the districts don’t watch Hunger Games coverage, Grandma’am insists this is “just the kind of story that catches fire.”
Note here that as Tigris lists the dead tributes, she doesn’t list their names. This further dehumanizes them—aside from on the mentor/tribute lists, these tributes’ names haven’t appeared at all in the novel. Grandma’am shows that she understands the power of Panem’s propaganda machine. And airing what was essentially a rebel victory, she believes, is dangerous. Her saying that this story will “catch fire” is a nod to the second novel in the original trilogy, Catching Fire.
Themes
The doctor Coriolanus spoke to days ago about Clemensia introduces himself as Dr. Wane. Dr. Wane sends Tigris and Grandma’am home and then tells Coriolanus he can go home in a few days. Coriolanus asks about Lucy Gray’s injuries. Dr. Wane doesn’t know about them, but he does know they got a vet out to care for the tributes. Coriolanus sleeps for the next day. He enjoys the hospital food and catches up on the news. Dr. Gaul definitely got a makeover for the Hunger Games.
Having a vet provide medical care for the tributes is yet another way the Capitol dehumanizes them. Giving them an animal doctor, however skillful that animal doctor might be, sends a very clear message: the tributes aren’t people. This is another place where the differences between how Capitol and district kids suffer is very clear.
Themes
Festus visits that afternoon and says the twins’ funeral will be tomorrow. Satyria and Sejanus visit too, and then Tigris stops in. She strokes Coriolanus’s head until he falls asleep. Coriolanus wakes early on Tuesday morning. He figures it’s a nurse waking him, but it’s Clemensia. The whites of her eyes are yellow and she’s twitchy. Clemensia asks why no one has come to see her and if people think she’s dead. She says she has to get out; Dr. Gaul is going to kill her. Coriolanus says the snakebites are making her imagine things, but Clemensia opens her hospital gown to reveal rainbow scales. She shrieks that it’s spreading. Nurses arrive to carry Clemensia away.
Clemensia’s state is horrifying—it shows Coriolanus how little Dr. Gaul cares about her students, since she caused this to happen to Clemensia. And it also starts to look like Dr. Gaul and the hospital are purposefully isolating Clemensia to hide what happened, which indicates that they’d like to keep this a secret. They don’t want it to be known that they’re willing to torture their own kids. When Coriolanus suggests the bites are feeding Clemensia’s paranoia, he helps the government cover up what happened.
Themes
Coriolanus spends the night wondering if Clemensia is going to end up in Dr. Gaul’s lab. It’s unclear why Clemensia’s parents haven’t seen her, or why no one knows what happened. Is Tigris in danger because she knows? Suddenly, the hospital seems like an “insidious trap.” Dr. Wane appears at dawn and asks if Clemensia scared Coriolanus. He explains that the venom is causing “unusual” side effects, and that her parents think she has a contagious flu. But Coriolanus can visit her in a few days.
Coriolanus might have played along by telling Clemensia it was all in her head, but now things are starting to look fishier. It’s especially concerning when Dr. Wane insists that they’re saying Clemensia has the flu—they clearly don’t want people to know the truth.
Themes
Soon after this, Dr. Wane removes Coriolanus’s morphling drip. This makes him feel even more suspicious and upset. He watches the funeral broadcast from bed. The organizers use a hologram of Coriolanus’s anthem performance from Arachne’s funeral. In the last few days, the two District Nine tributes died from their injuries, as nobody would let the vet admit the tributes to the hospital. Horses carry the dead bodies in the parade—and the three tributes who tried to escape are dragged behind the horses. Then, two caged trucks carry the living tributes. Coriolanus wishes he was a child again.
At 18, Coriolanus is in an in-between state between child and adult. He realizes that because he’s very close to being an adult, he has no choice but to engage with the horror of having his friends and classmates (to say nothing of the tributes) die around him in this terrible way. He believes that if he were an innocent child, he’d be able to better ignore the horrors of what’s happening—or, at least, the implication of what’s happening.
Themes
Dr. Wane releases Coriolanus after lunch. Coriolanus gets home to one of Sejanus’s Ma’s casseroles, but he can’t sleep that night. He can’t help but wonder how Lucy Gray is doing. Coriolanus also wonders if there’s footage somewhere of her rescuing him—and of him clinging to her skirt in fear. If there is, it hasn’t made it onto TV yet. He fishes out his mother’s compact, but the scent isn’t enough to calm him. Coriolanus paces all night. Early in the morning, Tigris reminds him that he and Lucy Gray are both powerless children. After a few hours of sleep, Coriolanus wakes to a call from Satyria encouraging him to come to school. Mentors will meet with tributes today to plan their interviews, which will now be voluntary.
Coriolanus seems to fear the possible footage of Lucy Gray rescuing him, and particularly of him looking weak in the moment. Again, this shows how obsessed he is with appearances—he believes he has to look the part of a wealthy Snow all the time and can’t show weakness. That footage would also inconveniently make Lucy Gray look kind, compassionate, and brave, which isn’t how the Capitol wants to portray kids from the district. So even if it’s true that Lucy Gray is those things, it’s not in Coriolanus’s best interest to allow others to see that.
Themes
Later, as Coriolanus stands on the balcony, he thinks of the dead tributes. Those who are still alive look terrible. Lucy Gray coughs and looks unwell, but her hands have healed. Coriolanus offers her a sandwich and thanks her for saving his life. Coriolanus can’t ignore that she did save him. But he realizes he owes her now, and he owes her more than a sandwich and cookies. He says he hopes he can repay her. Impatiently, Lucy Gray says he can repay her by believing she can win.
The mentors enter the hall from the balcony again, another opportunity to demonstrate their power over the tributes. Coriolanus realizes that he can’t continue to diminish Lucy Gray. She is a person, she is brave, and she is kind—and most importantly, she deserves to survive. All the tributes, of course, deserve to survive, so the fact that this is such a huge revelation is a sign of how successful Panem has been at shifting the conversation away from questioning the Games’s morality.
Themes
